
Copigttfi - 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



CHILD LIFE 
AND SEX HYGIENE 



A Remarkable Message 



By 

OTTERBEIN O. SMITH, D. D. 

Lecture/ on Modern Psychics 
and Active Pastor 



Published by request of a section of the Women's Club of 

Pierre, So. Dak., before whom the address 

was originally given 



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COPYRIGHTED 1912 
By Ottehbein O. Smith 



£C!.A320118 
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TO MY MOTHER 

Who, Through the Upfloodings of a Pure Mother 

Heart, Kissed Nobleness and Courage Into 

the Heart of Her Boy, This 

Book Is Dedicated. 



PRB9S OF 

THE MONARCH PRINTING CO. 

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA 



A FOREWORD 

Sending this little book out into the world is 
like sending out one of my children, for as they 
came from my heart, so has it. My heart has 
ached for my children as it has been necessary for 
them to go out and meet the buffetings of an un- 
sympathetic world and so aches it for this little 
fledgling. But still I have a hope that the world 
will not be wholly unkind to it and that it will 
find its place and accomplish that which has been 
hoped for it, in helping human lives and adding to 
the sum of purity in the world. 

This little message grew out of an address made 
before a section of the Women's Club of the city 
and their request to have it published. I have not 
changed the literary style from that of public ad- 
dress, thinking that perhaps it would be more 
effective in that form. 

You will doubtless find some striking and un- 
usual statements in this message, but all I ask is 
that you will give it careful thought and that you 
will remember that these statements have been 
made after twenty years of careful study of the 
mysteries of life and that they are backed up by 



6 Child Life 

the best of physical and psychic facts. I have not 
dared to go into detailed explanation for want of 
space and so may bring down on my head storms 
that I might easily dissipate if I were but in touch 
with the storm maker. But let the storms come if 
they must, I will rejoice amidst them all if only I 
can awaken the parenthood of this land to the 
dangers to which their children are exposed. 
Yours for purity, 

Otterbein Oscar Smith. 



Child Life and Sex Hygiene 



Sex Hygiene 

This word hygiene has its root in the word 
Hygeia. Hygeia was the daughter of one of the 
gods of the Classic Mythology, and was the god- 
dess of health. Sex hygiene is then, sex health, 
or sex normality. 

Is there special danger of abnormal conditions 
or disease in the sex life of children and young 
people? We must answer this question before we 
can determine whether our time is well spent in 
the study which shall follow. 

To determine this we must make a brief study 
of the unfolding human life and note some of its 
component parts and their relative relations and 
values in the organism. 

We can best do this by a study of the accom- 
panying chart. The lower line of the triangle 
represents the body, or physical life; the left side 
the feelings; the right side the intellect. If body, 
feelings and intellect were equal in any human 
being, then, we would have a perfect triangle, or a 
normal human life. But this is not true in any 



8 



Child Life 



child or young person. This diagram illustrates 
the relative relations of these three elements of 
being as the child advances toward mature life. 




3 tr? &4j/eerr& 

Z'/z //? z/j/ec?s& 
.. z" //? /<s yeaKs 



V- 
"2. 



4"8"6y. 



Note — For want of space the triangle is reduced 
from original drawing. 

The early years of a child's life is almost pure- 
ly physical and the physical plays a large part in 
the life of the girl or boy till they are well ad- 
vanced in their 'teens, as you will see by a study 
of this figure. 

Each side of this triangle is three inches long. 
The lines that run across the triangle represent 
feeling at the various stages of the child's life. 
You can see that in the early years the feelings and 



Child Life 9 

the physical are very close together and are the 
dominating impulses of the life. 

The reader should bear in mind that the word 
feeling is not here used in the restricted sense of re- 
ferring to physical feelings only, but to all the 
feelings which surge through the being from what- 
ever source. We should not lose sight of the 
fact, however, that, because of the important part 
that is played in the organism during the teens by 
the impulses from a given nerve center, all 
feelings will be colored more or less by the out- 
floodings of that nerve center. As we have sug- 
gested, the child till well advanced in years is 
largely a creature of feeling, and what mind it has 
is what may be called a picture mind, or a mind 
for seeing things. How easy it will be for all the 
feelings of the being to become inoculated with 
impurity and place before this picture mind of the 
child such distorted views of life as will vitiate 
the entire organism! How important it is that a 
higher intelligence, that is the father and mother, 
create pure, noble and beautiful pictures and place 
them before this picture, or seeing mind, of the 
child. 



10 Child Life 

A Child's Life Expressed in Figures 
Expressing the life of a child in figures, what do 
we find? As you will see, the baby has three 
inches of physical, three inches of feeling and but 
one-fourth of an inch of intellect. 77ns makes six 
inches of physical and feeling pitted against one- 
fourth of an inch of intellect. The child of six 
years has six inches of physical and feeling and 
one-half an inch of intellect. The child of four- 
teen has six inches of physical and feeling and but 
one inch of intellect. Even at eighteen the propor- 
tion is six inches of physical and feeling and hut 
two inches of intellect How striking these pro- 
portions are when we put them in inches. 

I would not, however, have you think you can 
literally measure a child in yards and inches or 
that they will all measure the same, for no two 
children develope alike, but in a general way this 
scale holds good. While you will find some chil- 
dren developing the intellect much more rapidly 
than others, and more rapidly than is suggested 
here, still you will find on the whole that this 
scale of relative proportions is not far out of the 
way for the average child. 



Child Life 1 1 

I WOULD HAVE YOU STOP FOR A MOMENT 
AND GET THIS DIAGRAM AND RELATIVE PRO- 
PORTIONS WELL FIXED IN YOUR MINDS. 

Think what these proportions mean and to 
what constant clanger this child is exposed in de- 
veloping sex abnormality if not disease. If an 
abnormal sex condition obtains it will surely soon- 
er or later lead to disease. We may therefore 
conclude that our study is worth while and of 
priceless value to all young life. 

The thoughtful study of this diagram convinces 
us beyond a peradventure that there is vast danger 
of harmful and perhaps dangerous sex conditions 
obtaining without careful and intelligent guiding 
in the early life of the child. 

Six to One 

Even at fourteen years of age the proportion of 
feeling and physical to intellect is as six to one. 
Where have you ever heard of a general who went 
out to fight a war with ten thousand men when 
his enemy had sixty thousand? He might make 
a momentary dash with such a force, but in the 
end he would be overcome. Still we allow our 



12 Child Life 

children to grow up with these odds against them 
and we seem to be entirely thoughtless as to the 
danger they are in. 

The Melting Power of Thought 

Are you asking, why the human organism was 
not so constructed that the intellect would always 
be the dominant factor in the life? Had this been 
done there would be no possibility of the organism 
ever coming to perfection, for the impulses that are 
sent out from the inner life of man through the 
brain at the upper end of the spine are so power- 
ful and so finely attenuated that they would en- 
tirely destroy the physical body before it has time 
to become strong and tense and able to carry them. 
// the intellectual impulses of a grown man or 
woman were sent through the life of a child the 
bod]) would be melted just as the fine wire is by a 
heavy voltage of electricity. 

God was wise in creating this sex nerve center, 
or physical brain, by which the organism builds 
and paints in glorious beauty and charming grace 
the wonderful machine, the human body, and 
makes it strong and tense so that when the work 



Child Life 13 

is complete the ego or spirit of man will have a 
perfect instrument through which to manifest itself 
to the world and perform its mission and live its 
life in highest nobleness upon the earth. Because 
of these facts Cod has wisely wrapped the intel- 
lectual faculties of the child within its life, as he 
does the rose-buds in the rose-bush, that when 
the body work * s completed, that crown of ail His 
creation, the self conscious life of man, may mani- 
fest itself in all its glory through a perfect instru- 
ment and that instrument remain strong and pro- 
ficient through the years. 

We may add this further suggestion to make 
our point clear. In our statement of the slow 
growth of the intellect as compared to the other 
two elements of being, we are dealing with the 
reasoning faculties and not with memory, which is 
quite another element and is not dangerous to the 
physical development, and may show a marked 
unfoldment at quite an early age. 

Impulse and Vibration 

Having got these relative proportions well in 
our minds we may for a brief time give our atten- 



14 Child Life 

tion to an important scientific fact which is neces- 
sary to our study. Our lives are entirely con- 
trolled by impulses which originate in various parts 
of our personalities. Sometimes the impulse comes 
from our bodies; again the feelings are in control, 
and at times the memory asserts itself. Then again 
the intellect is the dominating factor. Of THIS 
WE MAY BE SURE, FROM WHATEVER ELEMENT 
OF BEING COMES THE STRONGEST IMPULSE, 
THERE FOR THE TIME BEING IS THE SEAT OF 
GOVERNMENT. We are also scientifically cer- 
tain, that the more finely attenuated an impulse is, 
and the more rapid the vibrations are which carry 
such an impulse, the more powerful it is and the 
more surely will it prevail over the dower im- 
pulses carried at a lower rate of vibration. A cur- 
rent of electricity of high voltage will melt a bar 
of steel. 

The Finest Organs— Their Functions 

With the above thoughts well fixed in our minds 
we are ready to ask, what are the two finest and 
most sensitive organs in the human body and those 
capable of sending out the finest impulses? There 



Child Life 15 

is but one answer to this question. 1 . The brain, 
or mind nerve center. 2. The sex nerve center. 
One of these nerve centers, the brain, is the instru- 
ment of the intellect and the other nerve center is 
the instrument of feeling, not of base and shame- 
ful feelings, as many people think, but of the most 
exquisite and beautiful feelings of which a human 
being is capable. As the beautiful thoughts of 
man may he distorted into vicious and sinful 
things, so may the exquisite feelings which flood 
forth from the sex nerve center be debased and dis- 
torted into sins. 

With these glorious possibilities and purposes 
of this nerve center before us, what a horrid night- 
mare it is for anyone to think, as some people do, 
that this sex nerve center is the organ of humilia- 
tion and shame and is therefore not a proper sub- 
ject of conversation in polite society. Nothing can 
be farther from the truth than this. 

The Beauty Impulses 

Stop for a moment and think; from whence 
come the beautiful impulses, or thoughts OF HOME, 
MOTHERHOOD, FATHERHOOD, LOVE FOR AND 



16 Child Life 

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN, THE ART OF HOME- 
BUILDING AND HOME ADORNMENT P Come they 
not from this very nerve center? Destroy this 
nerve center in any young child and its life will 
be void of all these glorious impulses. 

In place then of this nerve center, or sex organ, 
being a blushing, shame-faced spirit that mutins 
in the life of humanity, it is the producer of all 
highest physical beauty both in the human organ- 
ism and in its surroundings. 

The Mind Brain and the Body Brain 

May I ask how many of you have ever told 
your boys and girls this? Not one of you, be- 
cause you never knew it before. You have always 
thought that our sense of beauty originated in the 
nerve center, which we call the brain. The mind 
of man directs, unifies and co-ordinates and should 
control these beauty impulses as they flood out into 
the being, but they have their origin in the sex 
nerve center. 

This organ, or nerve center, is the 
brain of the purely physical life, as 
truly as the gray matter, or nerve cen- 



Child Life 17 

TER AT THE UPPER END OF THE SPINE, which 
we call the brain, IS THE BRAIN OF THE EGO, OR 
INNER LIFE. Through the sex organ, or nerve 
center, the physical life in its rarest and most deli- 
cate beauty finds expression, as through the brain 
the inner life, or ego, expresses itself in thought and 
will. 

Do you ask for proof of this somewhat remark- 
able statement? Let me answer by asking a ques- 
tion. When are the birds most beautiful in plum- 
age and sweetest in song? At MATING TIME. 
It cannot be said that this is due to intellect, but 
upon the other hand it is the natural upflooding of 
the beauty impulses from the physical brain, or 
sex nerve center. 

We cannot here enter into the deeper psycho- 
logical question involved in this somewhat unusual 
statement, that the sex nerve center is the physical 
brain, but it must be evident to any thoughtful per- 
son that the statement is not far out of the way, as 
is evidenced in its beauty building power in the 
lives of the birds. There is an intelligence or con- 
sciousness in this physical brain, but it is not a 
self-conscious intelligence, such as functions through 
the brain at the upper end of the spine. 



18 Child Life 

Because of the above facts and many others 
that might be presented, we feel justified in the 
statements we have made above. 

When we contemplate all this may we not well 
pray, Oh, God forgive us our sins of ignorance 
and false modesty and help us rightly to appreciate 
this, one of Thy greatest gifts to the human race! 

A Striking Illustration 

Let me bring to you an illustration to make 
this thought clear. Suppose you could unsex 
every child in this city under six years of age; 
this would be before the sex nerve center had time 
to flood the life with the sense of beauty. Then 
build a wall about the city and leave these chil- 
dren to themselves, simply supplying them with 
food and clothing, but keeping away from them, 
as far as possible, all human beings, who through 
sex impulses were filled with thoughts of beauty. 
What would be the results and what kind of a 
city would you have here in forty years from now? 
There would be little, if any, physical beauty among 
these people as they grew up, for they would grow 
slatternly or slab-sided, or fat and stuffy, and hav- 



Child Life 19 

ing lost the sense of beauty with their unsexing they 
would let the buildings go to decay and the streets 
grow up to weeds, and what a dreary waste this 
once beautiful city would be! 

Who Has Been Teaching the Children? 

Though the thought is new to you, do you not 
begin to see the truth and beauty of what I have 
been saying about this wonderful nerve center, or 
brain of the physical life? 

What father or mother who may read this has 
ever felt it a religious joy to teach their children 
the truth about this wonderful gift of God to the 
human race? 

I am not going to ask you how many of you 
were so taught, for I feel very sure none of you 
were. Scarcely anyone has ever been taught any 
thing right about it, but most, if not all, have been 
left to stumble along in the dark, as you and I 
were, and if by chance they happened to hit upon 
a plan, or stumbled onto knowledge, which enabled 
them to live together happily after marriage, well 
and good; if not, the great American juggernaut, 
the divorce mill, makes another revolution, and a 



20 Child Life 

wrecked home and two broken lives are held up to 
public gaze, as the result of its deadly work. There 
is not the slightest doubt in the mind of the writer 
but that a large percent of the divorces of this 
country grow out of the absolute ignorance of 
young people as to how to live together happily. 

Help! 

But what shall I say? I do not know how to 
teach my children. 

A most delightful book, which will put pure, 
noble, and instructive words into every parent's 
mouth with which to approach their children from 
babyhood till they see them stand at the marriage 
altar, is "Four Epochs of Life," by Elizabeth 
Hamilton-Muncie, M. D., Ph. M., Graves Pub- 
lishing Co., New York. Let us ever remember 
that the education of a child along these lines 
should begin as suggested in this charming book, 
at a very early age, but it is better late than never, 
and if you have neglected your children before 
begin now. 



Child Life 21 

The Physical Brain 

Let us return now to this wonderful nerve cen- 
ter, or brain of the physical life. When does it 
begin to send out these finely attenuated beauty 
impulses, which must move at very high rates of 
vibration ? 

These impulses which give grace, form, and all 
other touches of indescribable charm to the body 
of the child. 

From the very beginning of its life to some small 
degree, and from twelve years of age they begin 
to show themselves the dominant impulses of the 
life. They rise in the body just like waves of heat 
on a summer day. They are flooding every fiber 
of the being, giving roundness to the limbs, grace 
to the form, drawing beauty lines upon the face, 
painting roses in the cheeks, putting sparkles in the 
depths of liquid eyes. All of this and more are 
these little builders, which we call sex impulses, 
doing in the years from twelve to eighteen. Is it 
any wonder with all this marvelous work to do, 
that like the sculptor who is to make a statue out 
of a block of marble, they must take possession of 
the body and become the dominant element in it? 



22 Child Life 

The heart, liver, digestive organs, and even the 
brain itself are subject to these outflooding im- 
pulses as they work out the beauty of the physical 
life. 

Turn back to your chart now and note what a 
small part the intellect plays in the life of the girl 
or boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen. 
Just enough to be a willing servant of the sex 
impulses, as they work out the plan of beauty, as 
given them by the hand of the Master of all life. 
In fact the brain is largely an atomaton in this 
work, for the ego has not had time to full}) lay 
through the brain that fine system of telephone 
connections and wires by which the brain becomes 
a perfect instrument through which the ego or 
inner man may reason out the problems of life, so 
that up to eighteen there is comparatively little 
reasoning ability in the life of children. 

Impulses Moving at Rapid Rates of 
Vibration 

These beauty building impulses are sent out in 
such abundance during the teens, that they fairly 
cause the body to scintiliate, the cheeks to glow 



Child Life 23 

and the eyes to sparkle. Here they come, wave 
after wave, like shimmering light upon the moun- 
tains, trooping up through the physical life like 
angels of the Eternal, making the body glow with 
unspeakable beauty. 

They should be guided by the finest and holiest 
thought, for they are the elect angels of Cod to the 
physical life of man. But what is done with them? 
Oh, sad! The parents have been led to think it 
is not quite the thing to talk to their children of 
these things and the child has not developed suf- 
ficient brain activity to reason about them and to 
understand them and translate them into elements 
of beauty and sacred service. Here the young 
life stands like a beautiful deer before the on-com- 
ing prairie fire, it feels the tremendous swish of 
the flood of feelings and physical life, like the 
hissing of the flames behind the deer. If only 
the deer can reach the lake for which he pants 
and swim out into its cool depths he will be safe; 
and if the child could creep, as it were, into the 
heart of father or mother and hear glorious, tender, 
holy words spoken of this flood of feelings, which 
is all so strange to it, and which sweeps up through 



24 Child Life 

its being like a storm in the forest, and have an 
intelligence translate them into God's own beauty 
of life, what a joy it would be! 

When I see the mighty army of beautiful youth 
standing unprotected and in ignorance of the great 
danger before them, with no one to teach them and 
the very parents that gave them being, indifferent, 
is it any wonder that my heart cries out, Oh, sad? 

Ignorant Parents — Ruined Children 

What usually happens if one of these elfs of 
human life has the temerity to speak to father or 
mother about these strange impulses? A blush of 
shame, perhaps, and the expression, "You better 
be thinking of something else," or "You should be 
ashamed to be talking of such things," ends the 
conversation. 

A lady in high station said to the writer, when 
talking upon this subject, "I went to my mother a 
few days before my marriage and asked her to 
tell me about the marriage state. My mother was 
a good woman, but all she said was, 'You will 
find out soon enough.' " God forgive and pity the 
ignorance of such mothers ! 



Child Life 25 

Rebuffed at home, what happens? This child 
goes out upon the streets and from vulgar play- 
mates, older than it is, through vulgar stories and 
suggestions, gets a base and lewd conception of 
all this in his or her life which God meant for 
beauty, for His glory and the glory of the race, or 
what is almost as bad, remains in stupid and dan- 
gerous ignorance till some vile octopus throws his 
tentacles about this dream of beauty and sparkling, 
buoyant youth, and the end of the tragedy is a 
ruined life, or what more often happens, two of 
these ignorant young people get together and be- 
cause of their ignorance commit those acts against 
chastity which bring ruin and disgrace. 

"But," you say, "such cases as you depict 
above are the exception and not the rule and I am 
not afraid of my child being caught in such ways." 

Your Child Is Not Safe 

I grant you this and hope by all means it is so. 
But do not because of this, settle back into com- 
fortable indifference, for there are greater dangers 
than those stated above from which you cannot 
say your children are so free. 



26 Child Life 

As children grow up in the home, if it is a right 
home, they often see father and mother kiss each 
other, and perhaps they see the mother sometimes 
lovingly drop down upon the lap of father and 
put her arms about his neck. The natural ques- 
tion that comes to the mind of the child is, "why 
does she do that?" No one has ever taken the 
trouble to anticipate this unspoken question and 
answer it, and the child goes out to mingle with 
its playmates of both sexes with this unspoken ques- 
tion unanswered. 

The natural outcome of the child reasoning will 
be, if one woman can kiss a man and sit upon his 
lap, then all women can kiss men and sit upon their 
laps. Why not reason in this way? No one has 
ever taken the trouble to explain the difference be- 
tween the married and the unmarried state and 
the rights and privileges that belong to the wedded 
pair, which rights are recognized by both God and 
the laws of our land. 

Natural Mating 

If you will observe them, children mate as nat- 
urally as the birds do. Here they are dancing 



Child Life 27 

about us like the sunbeans in the forest, in pairs 
of natural selection. You may notice them in the 
home, in the school and on the streets. Innocent 
little things they are in these childish matings and 
might remain so to the end of life if some kind 
intelligence were directing them. But no such intel- 
ligence is at hand. The mothers joke about these 
matings and tease the children about them and that 
is the end of the parents' relation to this gravest 
question in all life. 

These children grow to fourteen or fifteen years 
of age and the impulses from the sex nerve center 
begin to flood themselves out in a perfect submerg- 
ence of the life. They get hold of some silly love 
stories, that have been written by some heartless 
person for so much per line, and were never in- 
tended for any normal person to believe or think 
possible, but to their childish minds it is a chapter 
from real life, for they are not in any sense normal 
beings at this age as you will see by a look at the 
triangle. At this age the intelligence is but a mere 
pigm}; in their lives as compared to the giants of 
feeling and physical life. 



28 Child Life 

Ignorance Brings Ruin 

Seeing and knowing no danger in it, they fol- 
low out the natural sex impulse to touch one an- 
other and to caress each other. Why not? Have 
they not read in the love story of the lover and 
the sweetheart kissing and caressing each other, 
and furthermore, and the strongest possible evi- 
dence in the case, have they not seen father and 
mother kiss and caress each other? Is it -not the 
most natural thing, under these conditions, for these 
children to enter into such familiar relations as will 
lead to serious consequences in many cases? 

I know many a girl has lived through this 
period of ignorant familiarity with young men with- 
out having her character wholly ruined, and she 
appears before those of us who know the danger 
through which she has passed, as a living miracle. 

But having escaped these dangers herself, what 
has she done for the young man with whom she 
has had these familiar relations? She has, unwit- 
tingly of course, multiplied the sex impulses in his 
life till they sweep over him like a fire in the forest. 
He is a manly young fellow and would scorn the 
thought even of allowing these impulses to expend 



Child Life 29 

themselves upon the one who had awakened them 
and increased their outflooding. In the midst of 
these experiences he falls in with some young man 
older than himself, and they talk it over. This 
fellow prides himself on being worldly wise, and 
so the younger man is influenced by him. The 
result is that he goes to someone who will receive 
him for a money consideration. Then comes the 
awful awakening, and he recognizes the fact, that 
the blighting leprosy of the sin of lewedness has 
fastened itself upon him. But after the first shock 
his heart is lightened, because some physician as- 
sures him that he can cure him. But that man is 
either ignorant or he is wilfully deceiving this 
young man, for the Almighty himself cannot as- 
sure him that this plague will ever entirely leave 
his body. God will forgive his soul, but no one 
can honestly assure him that his body is not damned 
for all time. It is true some men seem to recover 
entirely, but no one can give them any assurance 
in this matter. The best medical science tells us 
that these germs may remain in the body for years 
and then show themselves in various forms and dis- 



30 Child Life 

Is it not time for those of us who know of the 
awfulness of this dread plague to "cry aloud from 
the housetops," if by chance we may awaken the 
fathers and mothers who sleep in ignorance and 
false modesty? 

An Appalling Instance 

Will it help you any if I tell you of a single in- 
stance, which came under my notice some time 
ago, and is but one out of many that chills my 
blood as I write. A young girl came to a certain 
city and secured employment in one of the busi- 
ness houses of the city. She was of inferior intel- 
lect and had but little chance for development of 
that side of her nature, but the sex brain, or 
nerve center, had done much for her and built in 
her body lines of remarkable grace, had painted 
her cheeks with marvelous color and given un- 
usual brilliancy to her eyes. A foul miscreant, 
in the form of a man of older years, saw this 
beautiful human creature and decoyed her into im- 
proper relations with him. His body was full of 
the leprosy of lewdness and he imparted it to 
this ignorant young creature. But sad as it would 



Child Life 31 

be it would not be so bad if the tragedy had 
stopped there, but it did not. Think of it friends ! 
Eight of the untaught and unprotect- 
ed BOYS OF THE HlGH SCHOOL OF THAT CITY, 
WHO HAD BEEN ALLOWED THE FREEDOM OF 
KISSES AND EMBRACES OF YOUNG GIRLS, AS 
IGNORANT AND UNPROTECTED AS THEY, saw 
this young creature and were drawn into improper 
relations with her and the leprosy was passed on 
to each of them. This is not an illustration mere- 
ly, but a statement of fact, for I had the facts 
direct from the physicians who treated these boys. 

If this was your High School would you be 
alarmed? And would you cast aside your false 
modesty and in the name of God be frank and 
true to your children? 

Though it may not be your High School there 
are always dangers enough that if realized should 
make parents earnest and anxious for the safety of 
their loved ones. 

Ignorance and a Wrecked Home 

May I give you a single illustration of the 
wrecking of two lives, through the ignorance of a 



32 Child Life 

boy touching these grave questions? This sad 
story was told me by a medical friend, who was 
personally acquainted with these young people, 
and while an interne in a hospital, in one of our 
eastern cities, assisted in the operation referred to. 
A young boy of sixteen, of one of the refined 
and cultured families of the city, had grown up 
in ignorance as to sex relations and instincts. He 
was invited to a week-end party, at the home of 
friends, and while there, with a houseful of guests, 
fell in with a woman older than himself, who 
enticed him into improper relations with her. 
Whether she knew it or not, she was afflicted with 
the leprosy of lewdness and she passed it on to this 
boy. As soon as he discovered his condition he 
went to his father and told him about this incident 
and was taken to one of the best physicians in this 
country, who lived in the city. This physician 
treated the young man till he was twenty-four 
years old and assured him, so far as medical science 
could determine, he seemed to be entirely cured. 
The young man had become awakened by this 
sad experience and through this awakening learned 
of the awful fatality which attaches itself to this 



Child Life 33 

leprosy, so to be sure he went to another special- 
ist and was examined and treated by him for a 
year. During these years, between the ages of 
sixteen and twenty- five, he had fallen in love with 
a beautiful young woman of one of the refined 
homes of the city; but so much of dread had he 
that he deferred his marriage for a year to make 
sure that the last vestige of the plague was gone. 
At last they were married with all the joys and 
delights of that hour. 

Vain hope was his, for in less than a year after 
their marriage the physicians were compelled to 
perform an operation to save the young woman's 
life, which forever left that home childless and 
the young husband carrying in his heart an awful 
shadow which would never lift till the grave re- 
ceived him. 

This is not an isolated case, for such tragedies 
are multiplied by thousands all over this fair land 
of ours. And the appalling facts are that a large 
majority of them can be charged to a lack of edu- 
cation by the parents. Thousands of dollars are 
spent to educate the children in books and music, 
but not a moment of time given to teach them the 
truth about this one most important subject. 



34 Child Life 

The Aroused Soul 

Are you startled and does your heart cry out, 
"What can I do? Oh! what can I do?" 

The Helper 
you can be frank, intelligent and 

HUMAN WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Let me tell 
you, if I may, some things you can do. Let us 
think of the daughter first, but not because she 
needs more protection than the son, for God 
knows they are both in need of all the protection 
loving, intelligent parents can give them. 

If the streets are sloppy and you want to pro- 
tect your daughter, what do you advise her? To 
wear her rubbers, of course. If she has a cold 
and there is a raw wind blowing what do you ad- 
vise her? Wrap up well and see that her throat 
is protected. Why do you give this advice? Be- 
cause on the sloppy streets the feet are the points 
of attack, and in the raw wind the throat is the 
point of attack. 

Why not be just as sane in dealing with your 
daughter when you come to teach her to protect 
her character and self respect? 



Child Life 35 

At what points do these outflooding impulses 
of glorious womanhood manifest themselves at 
the surface of the body? The answer is self-evi- 
dent, the lips and the bosom. You have known 
this all the time and you have sat idly by and 
seen your daughters go out into dangers far more 
deadly than wet feet or inflamed throat without 
ever saying a word to them about how to protect 
themselves. Why not sit down by your daughter 
of fourteen and tell her these truths; tell her there 
is a vital connection between the bosom and the 
sex nerve center which is more sensitive than the 
most delicate electric impulse and explain to her 
how wonderfully God has arranged the body of 
woman and why? Why not tell her the same truth 
as to her lips? Tell her that unless Cod had 
made a vital connection between the lips of a 
woman and the sex nerve center she could not kiss 
love and nobleness into the life of her children dur- 
ing those glorious days of motherhood. Tell her, 
with all the love a mother can put into the words, 
that will live forever in the heart of every true 
child, that because of these wonderful truths every 
true young woman should protect her lips and 



36 Child Life 

bosom as she would the engagement ring, the pledge 
of love and approaching marriage. Tell her, with 
the wifely love upflooding from your heart, why 
her father has a right to kiss and embrace you and 
why it will mean the lowering of her character, if 
not its ultimate loss, for her to give these jewels of 
hers, even for a moment, into the hands of any 
man other than he who will he her husband, and 
as such has the loving right to them. 

Why not teach your son the sacredness of 
womanhood and the manliness of protecting it ? 
Pardon me, if I say I am not writing a theory, but 
am speaking out of my own heart. I commenced 
teaching my own son when he was twelve years 
old and had my last talk with him a month before 
he was married. He grew up to be a clean young 
man and I .felt a thousand times repaid for my 
effort when his wife came to her new mother a 
short time after their marriage and told her with 
such delight how thoughtful, kind, gentle and re- 
fined her lover was in all their relations. 

The Dance and Its Dangers 
I may at this point call attention to the dangers 
of the dance. Every girl who enjoys dancing, 



Child Life 37 

and most of them do, should be shown the dangers 
to both herself and the man in allowing herself to 
be drawn up too close to the person of the man 
she is dancing with. She should not only be told 
that she must not do so, but told plainly and lov- 
ingly why. There may be nothing impure in the 
thought of either, for when they are dancing they 
are usually not thinking. Music tends to quiet 
thought and under such conditions they will follow 
the sex impulse and unconsciously draw near to 
each other, and they are far more sure to do so 
while ignorant of the dangers in it. In like manner 
boys should be taught to carefully respect the per- 
son of girls and told in a plain, frank way the 
truth about their relations to the opposite sex. 

I believe, as a rule young people love to dance 
with the purest of motives. They are attracted 
to this form of amusement because of their love 
for music and the natural desire to keep time to it. 
The most zealous religionist finds himself patting 
his foot when a bit of lively music is played, which 
is but an evidence of the natural desire of any 
human being to keep time to music. 

Is there someone asking, "If it is true that 



38 Child Life 

young people have the purest of motives in their 
desire to dance, how comes it then that so many 
frightful mistakes are made as a result of the 
dance?" I might answer in a single word, by 
saying, IGNORANCE. 

It is the conviction of the writer, however, that 
no more mistakes are made in proportion, and per- 
haps not so many, as the result of the dance as by 
long night rides in buggies, or sitting in the shadow 
of trees in public parks. But the facts are more 
people dance than ride in buggies. 

The Psychology of the Dance 

The great danger in the dance is, to my mind, 
a psychological one, which might be overcome by 
knowledge upon the subject. Let us examine this 
thought for a time, for here is the crux of the 
whole matter. When your attention is called to 
it, you cannot think of more perfect relations 
existing between two persons for hypnosis, or hyp- 
notic suggestion to take place than that which 
exists in the dance. To get this clearly before us 
let us note the steps taken by the hypnotist. He 
has his subject relax his body, and put his mind 



Child Life 39 

at rest and then he prefers to have soft music 
played. Under these conditions he most easily 
gets control of the mind of his subject. 

Let us now study the couple dancing. The 
body must be in a more or less relaxed state, for 
graceful motion would not be possible with a rigid 
body. The mind is at rest, because the music lulls 
it into quiet and makes the dominant element in 
the life the feelings, for We do not thinfy music, 
we feel it. Just here you must recall, that the 
sex nerve center is the brain of the physical life 
and continually sends forth the most exquisite im- 
pulses of feeling, which manifest themselves in all 
the glory and beauty of bodily charm and these 
must of necessity mingle in their outgoings with the 
vibrations of the music and the feelings which it 
induces. 

Now you have these two persons, with bodies 
relaxed, minds at rest, just floating over the floor, 
and carried, as it were, on waves of music. Under 
just these conditions many an uninstructed and 
ignorant girl has passed under a hypnotic spell in 
which she has been led to do that which ruined 
her life and which she would have surrendered her 



40 Child Life 

life rather than have done, had she been in her 
normal state. 

Let me give you an instance in point. Some 
years ago I was lecturing on the psychic question, 
and among other things I spoke of the psychology 
of the dance. The next morning I met one of the 
fine, clean young men of the little city, who was 
teller in one of the banks. He said to me, "Doc- 
tor I enjoyed your lecture very much last night, 
and I believe you have the right idea as to the 
psychology of the dance." He said, "Sometime 
ago I was dancing with one of the finest young 
ladies in this city, one who is absolutely above 
reproach. As you said, 'we were just floating 
along over the floor charmed by the music' I was 
looking down at her (he was a tall man), and 
thinking what a nice young woman she was, when 
all at once she laid her face against mine. She 
did not excuse herself then and she has not apolo- 
gized since and I do not believe she knew that 
she did it." This is the conclusion of a sane, 
thoughtful young man, as he pondered over an un- 
usual experience with a pure-minded and irre- 
proachable young woman. 



Child Life 41 

May I here give the testimony of an educated, 
thoughtful young man of thirty? In a frank talk 
with me, he said: "There have been a few times 
in my life when I have found it necessary to stop 
dancing with certain ladies." 

There might not have been the slightest wrong 
thought in the minds of this young man or the 
lady he was dancing with, but the outflooding 
impulses from the sex nerve center in the life of the 
lady might just at that time have been so vital and 
have been carried at such rapid rates of vibration 
as to make themselves felt in the atmosphere about 
her. This, my friends, might happen without an 
evil thought upon the part of either, for this brain 
of the physical life may and does send out these 
impulses without the recognition of the intellect. 

Had this young man observed these ladies he 
would have noted a charming and unusual color 
of the skin of the face and an unusual and be- 
witching sparkle in the eyes, both of which indi- 
cate marked activity of the sex brain, or nerve 
center. 



42 Child Life 

Should the Dance Be Abolished? 

There are many good people who would like 
to abolish the dance, and because of the ignor- 
ance of the larger number of people who engage 
in this amusement, I think I would join with them, 
but in all probability we will never be able to do it, 
so long as people love music and instinctively keep 
time to it. 

It may be in our zeal in this matter we are 
making a mistake and taking a wrong view of the 
question and by vicious, and sometimes senseless, 
attacks upon many good young people and this 
particular form of amusement in which they en- 
gage, doing both them and ourselves an injustice 
and keeping many of them out of the Kingdom. 
Of this I am sure, if young people are to dance 
the}) should have proper chaperonage and a right 
knowledge of the possible dangers and how to 
avoid them. No GREATER MISTAKE COULD BE 
MADE THAN TO ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO AT- 
TEND PUBLIC DANCES. 

May I close this little message then, which goes 
out with a prayer for God's blessings to rest upon 
all who read it, that it may be a helpful message 



Child Life 43 

to them; by urging frankness and candor upon the 
part of you, the parents, with your children, and if 
you are uninstructed inform yourselves and put such 
books in the hands of your children as will give 
them pure, wholesome information upon this most 
important subject in all the world, and God will 
bless you and them, and in joy and thankfulness 
you will see them grow up in the* purity and noble- 
ness of strong, helpful men and women. Be 
ASSURED OF THIS, IF YOU DO NOT EDUCATE 
THEM THE STREETS WILL. 



feJSS 






J» -^^V--* 



AUG ?9 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

III 

021 048 387 1 



